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F Bossard wrote:I would be pleased to have a rough idea of current rates per hour for MTPE (machine translation post editing).

If you want to set your own rate: work out how many words you can translate in an hour with the aid of machine translation, then multiply that by your usual per-word rate to get the per-hour rate that you should aim for.

So, for example, if you can translate 300 words per hour without machine translation, and 500 words *with* machine translation, and your rate is €0.09 per word, then you should charge €45.00 per hour for PEMT. The fact that you can translate only 300 words per hour without machine translation is not really relevant.

If you want to know what is the minimum offer to accept for PEMT, well, just think of your usual per-hour rate.

Colleen Roach, PhD

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I can't get it from your question, yet it may involve VERY different activities from just making it slightly more fluid and human-like to namely re-translating against the source, including conversions, researches and so on. Therefore, it may require VERY different approaches and payment; or how it was agreed. What are your responsibilities exactly?

Frankly, I wouldn't do MTPE or I'd asked for more, because for me it's more difficult to follow the original idea in styleless automatic sentence collections, unless they translate it for machines too)

[Edited at 2017-09-22 08:34 GMT]

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My answer is simple: don't accept machine translation post-editing jobs. We all need to take a stand against this appalling encroachment into our beautiful profession. I recently got into a big argument with a very large agency that has recently switched to a predominantly post-editing strategy. This agency now expects its translators to edit machine translation output for lower pay. Ok, that's fine when the source text has been perfectly written and formatted. However, 99% of the time, the output is garbage. As a result, I sent edited garbage back to them and told them there was no way I was essentially going to do the job of a translator at these lower rates. Make a stand people.

Radha Verma

Pankaj Makode

Catherine Howard

Irena Ogden

Florian Stauber

Thayenga

Rachel Waddington

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Radmila Sobacic

Daniel Hall

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- TAUS post-editors directory only lists per hour rate - https://taus.net/post-editors TAUS also offers a post-editing course. Of course, with a per-hour rate, you cannot justify training your skills from the ground up at the expense of the client. See point below.

- At the beginning, a seasoned translator who just starts out taking post-editing jobs should expect his/her productivity (and his/her per hour rate, if they use a per word pricing) to take a hit. This is only natural. But the mid-term aim is to match at least the translation per hour rate, with regards to productivity. Otherwise, either pricing or process is not correct, or they should simply stick with translation and other services.

- For what’s worth, I have been paid hourly for post-editing jobs.

- Post-editing must be done right, otherwise is it just exploitation in disguise: source material must be appropriate for machine translation, the MT output needs to require relatively few edits to meet the quality goal, etc. Some translation agencies are just as clueless when it comes to post-editing as the translators they use to post-edit their client’s materials.

- Although MT can be used as an aid for translation, post-editing MT is a different service than translation, it requires different skills and quite a different mindset (of course, both activities share many aspects and goals). Just like subtitling, or editing/revising, I think one needs to be acquainted with the process. Not every translator can (or should) tackle subtitling, revising or post-editing (the same is true the other way around).

- For a translator who starts taking on post-editing jobs, it is only natural to base his/her pricing in relation to his/her translation rate. One way to calculate this is to time how many words per hour one can post-edit, on average, and how this compares to his/her translation words per hour. Which brings me to the last point.

- I’m sure Claudio was giving an honest advice, but I consider this advice to do a disservice to fellow linguists. So, you charge for full post-editing as much as you would for proofreading a human translator? Is the time you take to fully post-edit 1,000 words 3 times faster than translating the same text, or equal to that of proofreading the translated 1,000 word text? And if 1/3 is the rate for full post-editing, how much would you charge for light post-editing? Because there is no such thing as “post-editing” without specifying the quality expectations.

- In my experience and view, full post-editing is more towards 60-75% of the translation rate, which I can confirm with at least three of my clients, who are serious about post-editing.

And to make things clearer, let’s find an explanation of what full post-editing and light post-editing actually is.

Light post-editing: This involves taking the raw MT output and performing as few modifications as possible to the text in order to make the translation understandable, factually accurate, and grammatically correct. The key phrases for light post-editing are “factual correctness” and “good enough”.

Full post-editing: Full post-editing, a slower and more in-depth pass, must produce absolutely accurate translations that consistently use correct and approved terminology, have the appropriate tone and style, have no stylistic inconsistencies and variations, and are free from any grammatical mistakes. After this edit, the translation should read as if written in the target language. The expectation is high: full post-edited content must be equal to human translation in all aspects. Therefore, content must meet the quality criteria defined by the client for human translations.

Jean

[Edited at 2018-01-09 20:59 GMT]

[Edited at 2018-01-09 22:10 GMT]

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Mario Chavez (X)Local time: 16:44 English to Spanish + ...

One hour doesn't have the same value for everything

Jan 10, 2018

I disagree with the tenor of the received wisdom that a translator has a standard (or universal) hourly rate. Different tasks require different skills, different level of concentration.

Although some companies ask what's my hourly rate for translation (which is a very vague statement anyway), I decline to answer. It's either a per-word rate or a per-project fee.

I charge different hourly rates for different services. And MTPE is a service quite different from straight translation.

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My answer is simple: don't accept machine translation post-editing jobs. We all need to take a stand against this appalling encroachment into our beautiful profession. I recently got into a big argument with a very large agency that has recently switched to a predominantly post-editing strategy. This agency now expects its translators to edit machine translation output for lower pay. ...Make a stand people.

I totally agree.

People still don't get it that the more they help these machines the less work they are going to have?I don't understand how people don't get that they are digging their own holes?

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